Living After Midnight
by ClancyBaggins
Summary: Crowley is a high level demon but he wasn't always that way. This is the story of how Crowley grew through the ranks from power hungry underling to feared boss using any means necessary including betrayal, murder and treason.


**Disclaimer: Alike to most other fictioners, I owe nothing. That is to say I do not own Supernatural or anything affiliated with Supernatural. **

**Authors Note: This is darker than what I usually write. There's slightly more swearing, slightly more soft core torture, etc than in my other fics. It was written for Damon's Bitch 13's Supernatural Crowley Contest. **

**Summary: Crowley is a high level demon but he wasn't always that way. This is the story of how Crowley grew through the ranks from power hungry underling to feared boss using any means necessary including betrayal, murder and treason. In my mind this fic is based early 70's**

Crowley was never high up in the ladder. When other demons thought of Crowley it was more of a 'who is my underling today?' than the respect and 'better not piss Crowley off' way that he so desperately wanted.

He was the demon that hunters would pump for information, tie to a chair over a devils trap and throw salt on until he verbalized the information the hunter wanted on some other upper class demon. Crowley would answer the same way each time, he would lie. He knew you didn't get high in the stakes from ratting.

That was until now. He'd been caught once again by some do good hunter with some tortured past and vowed to protect and serve against the forces of so called evil. The hunter in his late twenties had oh so originally lured Crowley into devils trap in an abandoned house and now here he was tied to a rotting chair in the most cliché of places.

A knife slicked with holy water and salt sliced along his shoulder and a hiss escaped Crowley's meat suits mouth. The knife left his skin as the hunter stepped predator like around to the front of Crowley. Crowley's hiss turned to a blasé sigh, he was getting tired of the same old hunters, the knife this hunter was using at least showed something new, hunters were getting more creative and the knife was so much cleaner than the regular throwing around of condiments.

"Release Erica Dillon from her deal" the hunter ordered grabbing Crowley's face roughly with his hands forcing the demon to look him dead in the eye.

"Sorry. Can't do that" Crowley tried to say back defiantly but the blood that dribbled out the left side of mouth ruined the effect a little.

The hunter laughed slightly bringing his knife to cut slowly along the bridge of Crowley's nose causing steam to rise and blood to drip.

"Why not?" the hunter asked

"Against the rules I'm afraid"

The hunter frowned and brought the knife to cut the top button of Crowley's blouse revealing his chest. The hunter places the tip of the blade on Crowley's chest putting both hands on the hilt of his knife and began rotating it in circles, the knife slowly edging into the body of the person that Crowley was wearing with every slow rotation. Steam was rising and sizzling but Crowley remained stoic.

"Release her or I'll stab this blade so far into your chest that you'll feel it in your spinal cord"

"It won't kill me mate. It will kill the girl I'm wearing, the little darling wants to be a physiotherapist, just put her application in at a university in Texas. You'd really kill her just to save the selfish bitch who sold her soul ten years ago? And people call demons evil"

The hunter's fist collided with Crowley's face, "Don't dick with me, you black eyed filth"

"This little bird's mother will love this black eye"

"I'm going to count to five for you to release Erica Dillon from her deal before I run this knife through your demon heart, got that?" the hunter stated bringing his knife back to the hole it had started to carve in Crowley's chest. "Five...four...three...two...one"

The knife blade reflected light into Crowley's eyes as the hunter raised it above his head preparing to bring it down full force into Crowley's chest. "Alright! Alright, I'll tell you!" Crowley screamed instants before the blade pierced his skin.

"Tell me what?"

"Tell you about the demon that's controlling the contract"

"Why?"

"Because I'm a big softie who doesn't want to see you ending the life of a seventeen year old wannabe physiotherapist"

"What about the demon controlling this contract?" The hunter asked moving the knife away from where it hung above Crowley's chest

"Her names Mara, she's a higher level demon than me. She controls me and others like me to collect on her contracts"

As if on cue a slow wind started to blow through the small window behind Crowley carrying a soft growl. A growl that Crowley recognised as the slow, deep growl of one of Mara's hellhounds, the hellhound he called Chax. The one that had come to collect from Erica Dillon, the girl the hunter seemed set on saving.

"What is that?" the hunter asked as the wind grew stronger forcing him to take a step back away from the window and Crowley.

Chax pulled at the ropes binding Crowley with his teeth freeing the demon. Crowley stood as soon as he was released from the bindings around his wrist, torso and ankles. The hellhound scratched a line in the devils trap and Crowley took a step forward out of the trap. It was evidently a sight to the hunter, Crowley himself didn't notice not being able to visibly see the hellhound out of hell; to him it was as if the giant black dog was most visible thing in the room.

"This, my boy, is a hellhound or black dog as you sometimes call them"

"They-they aren't real!" the hunter gasped taking steps backwards to the door away, eyes glancing around the room in confusion at the unseen beast.

"Sorry to break the news to you but Chax here is most certainly real, his here to collect from Erica"

"N-n-no! Y-you can't! Please, just, you can't" the hunter stammered putting his hand around the door knob slowly turning it ready to make his escape.

"What happened to the bravado of yours when you were cutting in to the body of a teenage girl?" Crowley asked cruelly, petting Chax's invisible form absent-mindedly.

"Please just don't take Erica" the hunter begged

"Luckily for you mate I told you the truth. Which let me assure you is something I _never_ do, so guess what that means for you"

"What?" the hunter asked confusedly.

"Means you're going to kill Mara for me"

**What do you think? Lemme know. Please review and tell me what you think of this. I'm really anxious cause it's decently graphic compared to how usually clean I write...I mean there was like **_**three**_** swear words. Also I'm really having trouble with conversation writing (as you've probably noticed) so any criticism or help would be much appreciated.**

**Now for my usual tag line, Praise or Flame, a review is a review ^^**


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